Desperate Situations of the Heart
by t3h bl00
Summary: Ryoma x Sakuno] Ryoma had never taken time to notice her, never taken time to appreciate her, until…[More info inside]
1. Chapter 1: A vow I can't keep

**Desperate Situations of the Heart**

**T3h bl00**

**OoxoO**

**Story title:** Desperate Situations of the Heart

**Began:** May 4th 2005

**Characters:** Ryoma, Sakuno, more characters will reveal themselves as the story continues.

**Couplings:** Ryoma x Sakuno. I believe this is such a great couple, but everyone is so obsessed with yaoi couplings when it comes to Prince of Tennis.

**Rating:** PG-13/R T or M

**Estimated Finish Date:** Fall 2005/Mid-summer 2005

**Author:** t3h bl00

**Summary: full** Ryoma x Sakuno Ryoma had never taken time to notice her, never taken time to appreciate her, until… cont. they were teamed up for a project in their Sex Ed. Class…now what?

**Author Note:** Ryoma and Sakuno are about 15 in this fic, almost at the 16 mark.

**Disclaimer:** I only own my Hiei keychain damnit. Yay.

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His mouth opened, gasping for air as salt encrusted tear drops of sweat perspiring down from his temples. This only lasted for a mere second, as he was immediately back up on his feet, tense and ready for his opponent to serve up his next play.

PWOK!

PONG!

If one was blind, these would be the on-going sounds echoing through ones ear. This, as loud and annoying as it was, truthfully, was a comfort to Sakuno Ryuzaki.

She sighed, her pale fingers clutching the diamond-shaped green gate separating the clay court with the bleachers. Her school skirt swatted against the gate and her plain white shirt stuck onto it. Whizzing tendrils of hair, given life by the wind, were tangling themselves in the metal gate. They were but only cinnamon spots over a background of a clear spring sky.

The sun may have been out, but the March wind had remained, even though it was still mid-may.

Sakuno always liked this time of the year, not cold, not hot, and just right. Wind wasn't one of her favorite offerings from nature, that she will be honest about.

She looked down at some of the daisy's that aligned the tennis court's rectangles, and she felt the corner of her head, where she once had the flower clip, resembling a daisy. Ditching that old hairstyle of sweet-little-Sakuno braids the year after Echizen came.

Once he came she changed a bit. She didn't change herself on the inside though; she would always be the sweet, kind, shy, timid, meek, little Sakuno. She liked being known as that, and she would hope she would keep it.

If Ryoma didn't like her this way, he was just going to have to deal with it. He made her happy, and ecstatic…even if he wasn't aware he did. She got this warm and sensuous feeling even when he passed her, and when he touched her, if his finger grazed across her own when he was reaching for something, his touch was electric.

She shivered slightly, as the wind became fiercer as the sun started to fade, showing that it was probably close to quarter to 7.

The game should be ending soon, and to anyone who actually understood tennis, who actually knew who Echizen Ryoma, was, it would be obvious who won.

She smiled inwardly as he emerged from the gate's doorway, victorious. His tennis racket being hung over his shoulder, he didn't have that smug, 'I-am-way-fucking-better-than-you' look spread across his face like most winners, but he just pushed his cap farther down, shadowing one of his cat-like smoldering amber eyes. They resembled the sun, and Sakuno couldn't stop staring at them. So fierce, so bold and brave, she wished she could always look into those eyes, when really, the truth was she couldn't.

Slowly, out of the corner of his eye, he turned to face her.

He had noticed she was staring.

She snapped out of it, turning around, her back to him and her face blushing madly. Never had a girl created ten new shades of red with just one gaze.

Quietly, she walked toward the street, and began on her way home, not caring that her grandmother was still in the tennis courts and could easily giver her granddaughter a ride.

Sakuno needed to calm down, and change her face's color before he saw her again, or before anyone for that matter. The last thing she needed was that. Of course, she could always blame it on something easily.

If Ryoma confronted her though, she had nothing to say, and would probably stammer and say "Um" every twenty seconds.

She sighed, leaning against a brick wall. She cold from the wall radiated onto her sweaty palms, which she clasped against the bricks. It was comforting, but not too comforting considering it was already getting colder by the second as the sun faded and faded more.

Lifting herself up from the wall, she continued her walk down the edge of the road, then turning to see Ryoma, clad in his tennis wear, peddling fast down on the other side of the road. His leg muscles were rippling and she could see that they were glistening in the early moonlight from the sweat he was drenched in.

She sighed slightly, wishing he actually would turn her way, maybe wave or smile, but in truth, she had never seen him smile. Just smirk, or barely make a motion with his face muscles, making it look as if he didn't even have a mouth.

He had a bag propped on top of his back, and she could see his racket case clinging against the wells of his bike.

Clank. Clank. Click. Clank.

It was another, peculiarly comforting sound that Ryoma could make, without even trying.

Blinking and taking her mind off of Ryoma and his strange noises, she realized that beg didn't belong to him. She had of course never seen it with him before, and furrowing her brows slightly, she thought the worst.

'A bag? A feminine looking one too…it's not possible that…no…it isn't…he's just probably running an errand, dropping off someone's forgotten bag…but what if…no, it isn't…'

But she sucked at convincing herself that it was just an errand situation. Her heart sunk deeper and deeper, like a stone into a deep lake, and it just couldn't hit the bottom. Her stomach began to hurt, and she felt like gagging.

This was so horrible.

Maybe…it would be better to just get over him. They were both now almost sixteen…she couldn't have a silly childhood crush boggling her mind over and over.

Or could she?

NO!

No. She wanted to forget about Echizen Ryoma, and that was final.

Watching him peddle off, turning down a separate road than her, she felt the wind pick up again.

She felt stronger. Like the temporary pain was lifted off of her heart.

Sakuno Ryuzaki, would once, and for all, forget about Ryoma Echizen and move on with her life. She would forget about his eyes of smoldering amber, his tanned skin, his own sweat that would glide across his cheekbones, forget about him and his sweaty scent of sunscreen and salt…she would…forget him.

And that was that.

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Ah! Well, well, well, a new fic. Har. I hope all those Ryoma x Sakuno fans enjoy, I do plan to have up to 10/15+ Chapters, or maybe even just keep it at 8. Who knows? Depends if I get enough reviews Which is like…30…20…reviews XD!

Well, I hope you like, and don't worry, chapters WILL get longer as the fic wears on, any comments or ideas or such, tell me! Read and Review, good for the soul. x)

**t3h bl00**


	2. Chapter 2: A bag and a project

**Desperate Situations of the Heart**

**T3h bl00**

**OoxoO**

**--Hey!**

**Second chapter coming up! GASP! XD**

Thank-you all for reviewing! I love you! Really, its reviews that keep me motivated! Hee-yah! (Not yee-haw, hee-yah. W00t D)

Well I will hopefully make a longer chapter than the first, PROMISEEE. Also, I will check and re-check (Spelling mistakes can get the best of ya….; X)

Now let's get this fic rolling…

**-t3h bl00 **would like to thank: **silvya, Pure Essence **and** lynnie6 **for the reviews!–Gives you all cookies-

**Disclaimer:** I only own my CDs…and my DVDs…and my Manga's. Huzzah.

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Sakuno adjusted her high ponytail. A long wave of glistening cinnamon-covered locks cascaded down to her shoulder blades.

Smoothing back what little shards of hair she had left hanging over her face, she slipped in a few clips to hold them in place.

All in all, she had moved on from the quiet little 12-year-old Sakuno Ryuzaki from way back when. She was slightly taller and her hair, though it had been cut, was still the long length, only thicker and filled with more luscious color that flaunted it's hues in the sun, unlike it did in braids.

She pulled on her shirts sleeves and straightened out her long pleated skirt. To look her best for school was always a priority, ever since Ryoma came. The problem was; she had vowed to stop thinking about him, get over this stupid childhood crush.

Her fingers stopped in the middle of what they were doing. Ryoma Echizen. She did this all practically for him. Well, that was going to change…

Rolling up her sleeves slightly, she undid the clasps in her hair, letting long frays of hair tumble onto her temples and deftly graze her cheeks.

Undoing her ponytail, she did it again, only higher, so her hair reached around her shoulders and the nape of her neck.

"No more Ryoma…no more thoughts of Ryoma…" She winced, repeating it in fast murmurs.

Reaching for her book bag, she realized it wasn't in its usual spot.

"The tennis court…the game…I left my…" She cringed and hit her wrist against her forehead. "Damn!" It wasn't strange to hear Sakuno say, 'damn', basically she found it the better word of all the rest.

Really it was just a word. Like ass was for Donkey. Shit was for…shit. They were just words, which really people used like common words you and I use, such as, "Yes. No. Maybe." Words that are used at least 10 or more times a day. After a while we get so used to saying these words, we say them as a reflex.

That was the least of her worries, though.

Panic issued through her bones, banging contagiously against her marrow, a twinge of fright in there too.

"Oba-san!" Sakuno called, knowing her grandmother had stayed at the courts longer than she, and would have probably seen her bag lying around somewhere.

"Yes?" She heard her grandmother's voice as the old woman emerged from the kitchen into her granddaughter's room.

"Oba-san, have you seen my bag?" The girl asked, trying to hide the frantic panic coursing through.

The old woman blinked, rubbing her chin lightly, "Ah! The Echizen boy took it…he said he'd give it to you at school today…"

Sakuno couldn't help but try and mask a flush. So that was her bag Ryoma had…he had her bag. Ryoma Echizen had touched her bag, and kept it on his back, taken it into his house…

What if it smelled like his house…

What DID the Echizen household smell like…?

Sakuno turned her back to her grandmother, "Thanks much Oba-san."

The lady nodded her head, trying to hide a smile, and walked out of the room, leaving Sakuno to scope out the recesses of her mind with questions she wished she could block out of her brain.

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Ryoma Echizen walked to the entrance of the school, passing the tennis courts. It killed him to see them so deserted, if he could, he would draw his racket from its case and retrieve a single Penn ball from his backpack, and fling it against the tennis courts clay surface, or at least the walls beyond its gates.

He shifted the weight on his shoulders evenly, Ryuzaki's bag on his left, his own on his right.

Why had he offered to take it? It was going to be a troublesome burden, and he could imagine seeing her face when he handed it to her, the image of her, blushing a bright red, and in a whispering, shy, murmur, asking if it was too much trouble.

The image played, rewound, and played again, like a broken record stuffed into his mind.

"Che…" he smirked in slight amusement, walking up to the entrance of the school, climbing up the steps and combing back his emerald tinted onyx locks from his face using his fingers.

"Ah! Echizen!" He could hear her light and wispy voice beckoning him from but a few feet away.

Looking down from the top step, he saw her, her chest moving up and down slightly panting and her face flushed. She must have run to catch up to him.

"Hm?" he looked at her, an emotionless stare plastered onto his face.

"My…my bag…" She caught her breath and stood upright, "My grandmother told me you had my bag…" she spotted it on his left shoulder.

"Oh…yeah…" He shrugged off the bag and handed it to her, "Try and be more careful with your stuff, luckily I got it before someone else did…" he turned around, and began to enter the doorway.

"Thank…you…" he heard her whimper out.

"No problem." He called out, turning down a hallway.

Tears burned in her eyes. "Why bother even being nice…he doesn't return it…damnit Sakuno, you are so blind…" She walked up the steps, taking them two at a time.

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"**Period 4, Sexual Education class, Mrs. Matsuo,"** Sakuno Sighed, reading off the bold print of her class schedule to her best friend, "Well it looks like we have Sex Ed. Next…"

Tomo smiled slightly, "What a great class…"

"Tomo!" Sakuno scowled slightly.

"What?" Tomo smiled innocently. She had too, dropped her childhood pigtails. Her golden tan hair drifted to her jaw line, and stayed there, and a bushel of carefully combed bangs rested across her forehead. Her hair had turned out perfect, who knew short hair was good.

Sakuno sighed, folding her schedule paper and inserting it into her front pocket that rested above her breast.

"Let's get a move on Sakuno! We don't want to be late for our favorite class…" Before Sakuno could indicate that she preferred art and Physical Education over Sexual Education, Tomo grabbed her friend by the head and barged through the flood of children that were in the halls.

'**Room: 2-B'**

Sakuno sighed as she took her seat in the center row and Tomo in the seat behind her.

"Good morning, my pubescent teenagers! I hope you are all ready for another exciting class of Sexual Education." A thin lady dressed in a long maroon dress with wild thick, black glossy curls entered the room, a pile of books and papers flooding out of her hands.

Some of the teenagers sighed, groaning and lolling their heads against the backs of their seats.

"Good morning Matsuo-sensei…" The class moaned groggily.

"Well you people need to be picked up on to your feet!" the teacher exclaimed, taking off her load of papers and books onto her own wide desk.

"Something like…a nice group project!" The class moaned again.

"What?"

"Why?"

"This is retarded! I want to be in Shop Class!"

The teacher, beyond all shouts and complaints, drew out long strips of white paper.

"Now…I have put you all in groups of tw—"

The door to the classroom opened, and in walked Ryoma, clad in his usual school uniform, and he went, and sat a few seats behind Sakuno. His face, plastered with the usual emotionless look, and his cat-shaped eyes staring ahead to the chalkboard.

"Ah…Echizen-san…so nice of you to join us…about 5 minutes late…"

"Sorry." He leaned back in his chair. "Just was talking to Tezuka." He flipped out what looked like a yellow post-it and held it between his index and middle fingers.

The teacher took the note, read over it, and nodded.

"Now…back to the pairs…" She began to list off names, each group including one male and one female.

"Matsuko Miharu and Hasegawa Shun…and…Ryuzaki Sakuno and Echizen Ryoma!" She cried gleefully, listing off the next two pairs, and continued with names.

Sakuno froze. She felt as if she had been doused in water and then sprayed over by frost, almost like she had been stuck out in a snow storm, wearing only a swimsuit.

Ryoma…and her…doing a project for school. Oh, but not just any project. A project for a class called Sex Ed. The class about Sexual Intimacy, about puberty, about what a man and woman do together.

She gulped, swallowing the large lump in her throat.

"Now, I want you all to get into your groups right now and pick one of you to come and draw what project you're going to do."

Sakuno felt her throat dry up. She heard Ryoma, pulling his chair among the others up to hers.

She could see him, his arms crossed across the desk, cradling his chin in the center of their fold.

"So…you or me?" he asked.

"I…" She felt her breath caught in her windpipe, "Uhm…I don't mind…"

"Okay. You." He stated.

Sakuno gulped, and tried to conceal a flush from the proximity of their closeness.

"Everyone chosen yet?" The teacher paused, and continued not giving enough time for an answer, "okay! Come up and pick…" She laid the choices flat down on the tabletop and let the students come and pick.

Sakuno stared down at the choices. Which number to pick…her hand loomed over 15…then 10…then 5…then back to 7…before she knew it they had been chosen all too quickly, and in a rush, she grabbed number 3.

"Alright! Sit!" The teacher commanded, and every student sat.

Sakuno looked at the choice.

"Make a diagram to discuss and label the Female and Male Sexual Anatomy."

She gulped and slid it over to Ryoma, looking down and memorizing the creases in the smooth wooden desk, wincing slightly as she heard him pick it up and most likely read it.

"Ah…easy…" He put it on the table, "Luckily you chose a good one."

Sakuno breathed a sigh of relief.

"When…should we start…?" Sakuno murmured, raising her head slightly from the table.

"The library after school today. After Tennis practice, we can easily get into there afterward, and get some books…"

"Oh…okay…" She nodded. It did sound like a good idea.

So they agreed on it. 5 o'clock pm in the Library. Alone. No one else but the librarian, possibly.

Sakuno couldn't help but blush her trademark blush.

Ryoma and her. Alone.

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**-**Ach! There you go. ENJOY! Review and you get a cookie. x) Love you all!

**--t3h bl00**


	3. To the Library?

**Desperate Situations of the Heart**

**T3h bl00**

**OoxoO**

**-Hey all!**

These last three weeks, I have been through hell and back, trust mmeeee. Heh. Well of course I know I took _FOREVER_ to update, I'll be updating _A LOT_ more in these next few weeks, considering…I'm finally out of school for SUMMER! Ha!

I **LOVE** YOU ALL THAT REVIEWED! –Gives you all a cookie- **LOVE** YOU! But not in a like-like way you know in the other way…you know…yeah…

D

**Disclaimer:** I own jack nuttin… >(

* * *

Sakuno stood at the entrance to the library, twiddling a shard of her hair around her index finger and back again, caressing her thumb.

This was all too nerve-racking. There was no way she could survive an evening with Ryoma in a library.

Ryoma Echizen. The heir to the well-known Echizen Tennis throne, the throne that currently belonged, well, once belonged to his **_saintly_**, **_pure_**, father.

Fingering the hem of her tennis skirt, she waited for Ryoma to finish his practice. Thoughts staggered across her mind, like a jagged line of paint across a canvas. A nervous line, a curious line asking too many questions, and they had now been executed from the mind and put on the paper.

Sakuno stared at the sky, the deepening navy already overtaking the slowly fading sun,

How much longer was Ryoma going to take?

"One more game!" the voice protested, obviously a sore loser wishing for one last chance.

_What the—no way! Echizen if you…_

"I have to work on a project." Ryoma responded, his usual monotone.

"Pfft! Come on I want to beat you at least once!" the voice whined. Who knew teenage men could be such sore losers… **(A/N: No offence to any teen males reading this. Heh…)**

"Well, not right now. Besides, it's getting dark." Sakuno watched as Ryoma's figure began to walk off, Penn tennis ball in one hand, racquet in the other.

"But we have the lights-" The voice began, but was cut off.

"Enough. I have to go." Ryoma dumped the tennis ball into it's container of three, and left it there, then grabbing the case for his racquet and sealing the racquet into it. "Would you mind taking the tennis balls into the supply closet?" Not waiting for an answer, he lifted his cap up a bit and walked up to Sakuno.

Silence.

"Let's get a move on. Follow me." Ryoma began walking, picking up his backpack which was leaning against the changing rooms.

Sakuno obediently followed, but then stopped as they passed the school gates.

"W-where…are we going?"

"To my house." He stated simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sakuno froze, her skin went frigid.

"N…not…the…library?" She stammered.

"Do you really expect the school library to be open at this hour? It's almost dark."

"B-but you said…" she began, and then was cut off.

"Change of plans…"

"Well do you have a computer…?"

"Nope. Apparently my dad has many books and such…and earlier I got out a few books from the library anyway, so we have enough information for now. We can go to the library tomorrow. We have about 2-3 weeks. Or more."

"I suppose…" Sakuno blushed slightly, just thinking of her in Ryoma's house.

No. **She shouldn't blush**. She was over Ryoma. **FOR GOOD**!

Yes. _For good_.

Hopefully she would survive…in his house. Hopefully she would remember that…in his house.

Ryoma's house…Echizen Ryoma's house…

'_Just stop thinking about it_!' Sakuno scolded herself mentally.

* * *

"We're here…" Ryoma turned to look at her.

"Oh…" Sakuno looked up, staring at where Ryoma stayed. Where he slept. Where he ate. Where he showered…

Everything…

"It is really my cousins place…well, something like that."

"You're…cousin?" Sakuno responded, half aware he had talked and she had answered.

"Yes. But she is usually out or studying."

"Alright…"

"And my dad…he just is lazy and is probably asleep on the couch. So we'll just take the books up and record notes in my room."

My room…his room…Echizen Ryoma's **ROOM**… '_Oh God_…' Sakuno thought.

* * *

Ryoma's room was normal. Like any other room. Bed, television, game station, a few clothes here and there, and not to mention, trophies and medals hanging across his dresser, it was like any other room belonging to a boy…man…male of his age.

Sakuno stood at the doorway as Ryoma slung his backpack next to his bed and sat on it. She had no clue what to do, or where to sit, afraid that if she sat on his bed he would tell her, '_get off_.' Though, if she just stood there he'd probably think she was an idiot.

Or something like that.

"Sit on the bed." He commanded, already searching through his bag for a notebook.

"O-ok-ay…" Sakuno responded and sat onto his bed, a light, feathery pink blush deepening.

'**Merow**!'

"Eh…!" Sakuno jumped at least a foot in the air by the strange sound that came from under the bed.

"Kalpin…" She heard Ryoma sigh and drop his bag to look under the bed. "You can't be in here now; I have to do a project."

'_Eh? Who's he talking to_?' Sakuno blinked, her blush already passed pink and now taking a darker, reddish hue.

Ryoma looked up at her, his amber eyes glowing in the late sunlight that was sliding in through the blinds of his window. "It's my cat…sort of…it just walks in and out of my bedroom and the bathroom a lot. It can be very…disturbing."

"Oh…" Sakuno nodded slightly, and then too looked under the bed to only be greeted with eyes resembling Ryoma's.

'**Mew…**' the cat began to make its way from underneath the bed.

"It's very adorable…" Sakuno murmured, not even aware that she had said a full sentence without pausing or stuttering.

"Yeah." Passing her a book, he looked to her, "Read through this one and make notes. I'll do the same with this one." He held up the book he was going to use. '**The Reproductive Organs.**'

Sakuno's blush turned maroon as she looked at the title of that one, down to hers.

'**The Male and Female Reproductive Anatomy.**'

"They are basically the same thing." Ryoma explained, "So we might get the same information."

"Oh…o…k-kay…" Sakuno stammered, her fingers twitching as she slowly pulled back the covers to the Index.

"I…you…well…I could do one section…such as the Female anatomy…and you could do the male…" Sakuno suggested maybe this would make it easier. She may not be a 12 year old, disgusted by opposite sex, but she didn't feel like studying the…lower areas of a male.

If she had an image of that lower area in her mind she would begin to think of it every time she looked at that certain boy next to her.

"It'd be better if we studied the opposite sex's anatomy."

"Oh…alright…"

Flipping to the correct page, Sakuno could see a huge diagram of both reproductive anatomies' staring right back at her.

"E-echi…zen…"

"What?" He turned to look at her, but his eyes locking onto something else.

Sakuno thought she would never see the day when Ryoma Echizen would blush.

Never in her life, did she think that. Now, however, she knew that if he could blush, a pig was capable of flight.

This was going to be a long night...

* * *

Arghh I know, you were probably expecting some Ryoma x Sakuno-ness, but next chapter…you just wait! ;-D hehehe.

I know that this chapter seems sort of rushed, bare with me x.x;

Well, I've got to get working on my other fic before my reviewers hunt me down and kill me! Heh…peace out! **Read and Review!**

**t3h bl00**


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